Strike Out

Friction between labor and management could have long-term consequences for Portland.

Two of Portland’s biggest organized labor groups spent the last week girding for the latest skirmishes in a larger campaign.

“I would never
compare myself to a brave American soldier fighting a war,” wrote a
middle-school teacher in an email widely circulated among supporters of
the Portland Association of Teachers. “But in a way, we are fighting a
war. Did we learn nothing from Vietnam?”

History is about to
repeat itself. The teachers’ union and Portland Public Schools may have
reached an 11th-hour deal Feb. 18 to avert a strike, but that’s not the
only contract battle in the city. Negotiations between the District
Council of Trade Unions and the city of Portland that seemed settled
last month are in limbo after workers repudiated a contract agreement.

The dual standoffs
represent the collision of organized labor’s frustrations after years of
recession-flavored budgets with management teams emboldened by peevish
business leaders.

How did workers and management in this labor-friendly city wind up at impasses on two fronts? Here’s a primer.

How We Got Here

Portland Association of Teachers: The Portland Association of Teachers
voted Feb. 5 to authorize a strike after nine months of desultory
negotiations. The union has followed a template set by the 2012 Chicago
teachers strike—they’ve even borrowed a slogan: “The Schools Portland’s
Students Deserve.” Their hard line reflects the approach executive
director Richard Sanders of the Oregon Education Association ushered
into the state in 2011. It’s no coincidence that Medford teachers are
now on strike.

District Council of Trade Unions: The 1,600 workers who make up the DCTU
are actually members of seven unions. Unlike politically powerful
firefighters and police officers, DCTU workers hold less visible
positions, in city parks and office cubicles, and on maintenance crews.
They voted Feb. 10 to reject a new contract with the city—a revolt
incited by members of Laborers’ Local 483.

What’s the hang-up?

PAT: The two sides have sparred over pay and
benefits, but the real sticking point was class size. “I get why
teachers are up in arms,” says Sue Levin, executive director of Stand
for Children. “We’ve got abominable class sizes and a shrinking school
year.” The district insists on adding days to Portland’s school
calendar—now among the nation’s shortest—but balked at PAT’s demands to
hire 175 more teachers.

DCTU: “Our folks don’t feel like the employers
empathize with them at all,” says AFSCME’s Baessler. City workers are
unhappy with their cost-of-living pay increases and time off—but their
big gripe is workers’ perception that the city is pushing for more room
to contract out jobs to non-union companies.

Why this doesn’t make sense?

PAT: On one hand, the impasse is puzzling
because the school district, for the first time in years, is flush with
cash: Three-quarters of PPS’s budget comes from Salem, and that
allocation rose about 18 percent last year. Yet spending all the
increase on raises and new teachers would be risky because the district
has no control over future funding. That’s likely to leave teachers and
parents unsatisfied.

DCTU: Because the union’s designated
negotiators already signed off on the city contract. So when members
voted to reject the deal, they were also rebelling against their own
leadership. “The bargaining team thought this was the best they could do
at the table,” says Erica Askin, internal organizer for Local 483. “The
members are not going to back down. City workers are tired of being
bullied.”

Why should I care?

PAT: Everything from graduation rates to
property values is on the line. Already, patience with the district and
the union has grown thin. “I think the wrong people are walking out,”
Greg Goodman, a downtown developer, said on the eve of a strike. “I’d
have the kids walk out, have an Occupy down at the waterfront, and make
demands.” But it’s the OEA that is pushing a state ballot measure that
will address school funding.

DCTU: The contract spat threatens solidarity
between workers and city leaders on another front—the fight to defeat a
May ballot initiative that would wrest control of the water and sewer
bureaus from City Hall. Trade unions are slated to supply the city with
money and muscle to defeat the coup led by angry businesses. If they
don’t, measure backers have said they’re ready to eliminate dozens of
union jobs to lower utility rates.

Where’s Charlie?

PAT: Former Mayors Vera Katz and Sam Adams
visibly immersed themselves in school contract talks. But Mayor Charlie
Hales held just one meeting with the district and the union before
departing for South Africa, where he made phone calls to both sides.
“Hallelujah,” he said upon hearing of the Feb. 18 deal. “They deserve
some sleep.”

DCTU: After the mayor spent the past month
carefully keeping his distance from the teachers’ battle, he now has a
labor impasse on his own doorstep. “The irony is not lost on us,” says
Hales spokesman Dana Haynes. “We just reset the clock.”